Internal Storage Issue

[Brian Scott]

Hi, just bought what I thought was a S20 from an Internet site and although it seams to work OK, there seems to be an issue with the internal storage. The phone is supposed to have 256Gb internal storage but I run out of space after about 12Gb! Everything reports OK before the 12Gb, with the device saying I have something like 240Gb free but just by adding another few GB the device reports the whole of the 256Gb has been used up,

Is there any way to fix this or has the memory been tampered with?

 

[Unforgiven]

Give this app a try. It is for an older version of Android but I tested it on my S20 and it was accurate. It was written by a couple former moderators here and uses zero permissions.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.storagetruth

 

[Hadron]

It's unlikely that the storage was tampered with. More likely is that it isn't an s20 at all, but a fake with low-end internals (including limited storage) that has been programmed to report that it has more storage than it really has. Which "internet site" did you buy it from, and if it isn't too indelicate a question, was it cheaper than you might expect?

The other possibility is that it's a real s20 but faulty, but as the system storage and user storage are the same chip it feels a little unlikely that there could be a fault in the storage device that left all of the system software untouched and functional but did this.

Could you post a screenshot of the system information. Particularly the "baseband version": fakes are usually programmed to lie about what type of device they are, what software build they are running, etc, but the baseband (radio firmware) is often a giveaway. An unusually good one might show a genuine Samsung baseband version, but if it shows something else (e.g. a MediaTek baseband) then that would show that it was a fake.

If you just bought it, an obvious question is whether you can return it: if it's genuine it is faulty, so you should be entitled to a replacement or refund. Of course if you bought it from a Chinese online market you will most likely be out of luck.

 

[Brian Scott]

It's unlikely that the storage was tampered with. More likely is that it isn't an s20 at all, but a fake with low-end internals (including limited storage) that has been programmed to report that it has more storage than it really has. Which "internet site" did you buy it from, and if it isn't too indelicate a question, was it cheaper than you might expect?

The other possibility is that it's a real s20 but faulty, but as the system storage and user storage are the same chip it feels a little unlikely that there could be a fault in the storage device that left all of the system software untouched and functional but did this.

Could you post a screenshot of the system information. Particularly the "baseband version": fakes are usually programmed to lie about what type of device they are, what software build they are running, etc, but the baseband (radio firmware) is often a giveaway. An unusually good one might show a genuine Samsung baseband version, but if it shows something else (e.g. a MediaTek baseband) then that would show that it was a fake.

If you just bought it, an obvious question is whether you can return it: if it's genuine it is faulty, so you should be entitled to a replacement or refund. Of course if you bought it from a Chinese online market you will most likely be out of luck.

Looks like it is a Fake and I should have known better, it was bought from Wish.com. Of course the price did seem to be "too good to be true"

I have attached a screenshot of the system information and of the report from the tool suggested by Unforgiven. The tool does that it doesn't have 256Gb.

I assume there is nothing that can be done and I report this to Wish as a fake?

Thanks for your help on this.

 

[Dannydet]

I would contact Wish customer service and demand a refund or replacement, since the device sold to you is fake...

 

[Hadron]

Yeah, sorry, definitely a fake, and a low-end device even by the standard of fakes: 16GB storage (which is what I feared when you said problems started at 12GB), a MediaTek MT6595 SoC (an ancient and low-powered processor), and running Android 6 (trust Storage Truth on this, not what the fake system menu says). Probably the screen is lower resolution than it should be, the camera will certainly be low specs, etc.

Contacting Wish is the best thing I can suggest- That phone will bring you nothing but pain and disappointment. I just hope they play ball.

I'm afraid I would never buy anything from them unless I was actually looking for a fake - they have a really bad reputation as the home of scam sellers on the web.

 

[Brian Scott]

Yeah, sorry, definitely a fake, and a low-end device even by the standard of fakes: 16GB storage (which is what I feared when you said problems started at 12GB), a MediaTek MT6595 SoC (an ancient and low-powered processor), and running Android 6 (trust Storage Truth on this, not what the fake system menu says). Probably the screen is lower resolution than it should be, the camera will certainly be low specs, etc.

Contacting Wish is the best thing I can suggest- That phone will bring you nothing but pain and disappointment. I just hope they play ball.

I'm afraid I would never buy anything from them unless I was actually looking for a fake - they have a really bad reputation as the home of scam sellers on the web.

Thanks you all for your help, I have bought a few things from them and they have been as described so I thought I would give a phone a punt. I will try for a refund and hope for the best.

Cheers

 

[Brian Scott]

Thanks you all for your help, I have bought a few things from them and they have been as described so I thought I would give a phone a punt. I will try for a refund and hope for the best.

Cheers

Just to let you know, I finally received a full refund from WISH.com :-0